Feudal Online
by Sabrulee
Summary: Inuyasha and Kagome go to the same high school, but they've never talked to each other. That all changes the day they enter the virtual world of Feudal Online, the adventure begins when they both accidentally create characters of the opposite gender...
1. First Mistake

Chapter One,  
>First Mistake<p>

"Shit..." A handsome boy sitting at a computer desk grumbled pushing his laptop away, he brushed a hand through his long silver air and sighed in frustration.

"What?" Another boy looked over at him from a couch, he had short black hair pulled back in a little tail, a purple laptop on his lap.

"Feh, nothing Miroku.." The first boy tilted his screen down.

"What is it...oh!" Miroku put his laptop down on a coffee table in front of him and walked over to his friend glancing at his screen. "Hahaha Inuyasha, you made yourself a girl character!"

"It was an accident! How the fuck do I delete this?" Inuyasha responded embarrassed and flipped the screen back up glaring at the female character standing in the middle of it smiling at him.

"You can't, that's your main character." His friend explained trying not to laugh, "You're stuck with it until you level up enough to unlock another character spot." Unlike Inuyasha he had actually bothered to read the instruction book.

"Can't I just delete the account or something?" Inuyasha asked desperately, he was never the best with computers but this was by far the worst mistake her had ever made.

"Not unless you have enough lying around to actually buy the game?"

"You know I don't..."

"Just play that character."

"A girl? No fucking way."

"Come on... it's cute."

"I will fucking kill you."

"Here," Miroku leaned over and pointed at something on the screen. "See? As soon as you get a helmet you can barley tell It's a girl character, plus she has really small boobs."

"Shut up!" Inuyasha's face went a little red.

"Here you can make them bigger by clicking this..." Miroku grinned making the character's chest enlarge with every click of the mouse. He didn't stop till Inuyasha punched him and made him deflate them back to what they had been. "How boring." He grumbled retreating back to his safe couch. Inuyasha glared at his screen for awhile longer until he got tired of Miroku's whining for him to hurry up and finally began customizing his character. Long silver hair, sharp gold eyes and tall stature, she was strong and looked as much like him as possible for a female character. He clicked continue and tried to decide his class, their was a large number of races and sub-races and an equal amount of jobs. He was too impatient to really read up and figure out the pros and cons of each race and class so he chose the first that stood out to him. "Race: Dog Hanyou, Class: Warrior" scrolled across the top of his screen and his character modified slightly to suit it, she gained a pair of white dog demon ears and traditional red fire rat clothes wrapped loosely around her body. She did a cute little spin that made him want to throw his laptop across and the room and stood ready to enter the online feudal world.

"I'm so excited, I can't believe not only did we got these systems free, we also get to beta test the game!"

"Yeah were really lucked out, those things are hella expensive..." Inuyasha glanced over at the systems that were connected to their laptops. They were quite small for such advanced technology, but a rule of thumb with tech nowadays was the smaller the better. It was beyond Inuyasha why an iPod needed to be the size of a paper clip to be better. They were a blindingly bright white and about the size and shape of a walkman. The words "Feudal Online" were glowing on the side of it, it came with one wire to connect into the laptop and another to connect to a head set that was the soul contributor to the virtual experience. Inuyasha still felt sketchy about the entire thing but Miroku was blissfully oblivious. It wasn't that the system seemed unsafe, or like a scam, no it was obviously authentic there had been a ton of buzz about these systems for months, also they had received the systems through a random draw from their school along with a few other kids. It was just... virtual reality? Was this really going to be as real as advertised?

"Do you think this is really going to be virtual reality?" Inuyasha spoke his curiosity out loud, his character pointed to a door excitedly that had the words "ENTER" written above it, an admin had appeared on his screen instructing him to put on his head set.

"It better be, this system is worth about eight hundred thousand yen." (Around ten thousand dollars) Miroku commented reminding himself to be careful with it. He was right, there was no way this could be some kind of crappy 3D-ish game and cost that much. It had to be real.

"Come on let's goooo!" Miroku pulled his purple head set out of the box and place it on his head, it looked really cool. It had a very high tech future vibe, built with two large earphones, a microphone and an eye shield.

"Hold on! How will I know which character is you?" Inuyasha enquired scanning his friend for a response but Miroku seemed dead to the world, the eye shield was lit up and Miroku wasn't moving in front of his computer screen which was showing an amazing world, other than the slow rise and fall of his chest that showed he was still breathing his friend was absolutely still. The entire situation was really weirding him out but he didn't want to leave Miroku alone in it, he pulled out his own red set and only hesitated for a second before putting it on.

"Miroku?" Inuyasha stared around rubbing his eyes, there had been a blinding white flash and he now found himself standing in a field of unrealistically green grass. Inuyasha looked down at his hands and let out a high pitched scream, he then covered his mouth horrified. He really was a girl. He didn't dare look down at his chest and instead focused on the furry little ears on top of his head, for some weird reason they just felt right.

"What's a pretty thing like you doing in a place like this?" a man's voice called out from behind him and he turned around ready to fight. His guard dropped as soon as the man came into view, he was wearing a dark black and purple robe and was holding a long staff.

"Miroku..." Inuyasha smirked at him, deciding to forget the "pretty" comment.

"How did you know?" He smiled back patting his face, it was true he didn't look as much like the seventeen year old boy sitting in their living room really did, but Inuyasha had known Miroku for a long time and there was just something in his eyes, his grin, that just screamed Miroku. He wondered if, despite his female form, it was the same for him. His character had black hair pulled back in a short pony tail and pretty much looked like an older, stronger form of his best friend.

"You chose to make your character look a lot like you." Inuyasha noted.

"Yeah, you too," Miroku chuckled, "But sexier." Inuyasha hit Miroku across the head who grumbled, "Owww.."

"That hurt?" Inuyasha looked at him surprised.

"Yeah.." He frowned rubbing his head, "But in a sort of unreal way."

"That doesn't make any sense." He studied his friend annoyed by his answer, "Hit me."

"I'm not going to hit a girl." Miroku looked at him shocked.

"I swear to god if you don't hit me in the next five seconds I will log off and kick your ass in real life, and it **will** hurt!"

"Fine fine..." Miroku pulled out his staff and struck Inuyasha on the head, he had to admit despite his initial resistance it felt really good.

"Huh.." Inuyasha rubbed the spot thoughtfully, Miroku was right...It felt like pain, but not. He felt like his character was receiving damage, but not his real self. "Virtual reality is weird..."

"That it is." Miroku agreed and Inuyasha noticed his friend studying him.

"What?"

"You chose to be a Hanyou, eh?" His tone was a tad cocky.

"You can tell?" Inuyasha looked at him surprised.

"If you would have bothered to read the instruction book and introduction manual..."

"They were fucking huge!" He defended himself, Miroku laughed, such dimwitted words coming from such a fierce looking hanyou.

"Yes, but useful. Also my character poses advanced IQ."

"Oh yeah?" Inuyasha mumbled obviously losing interest, "What's up with the beads and staff?"

"My race is Cursed Human, and my class is Monk. So these are my Shakujou and Rosary Beads, their constant with the Buddhist Monk class."

"Cursed Human?" Inuyasha gave him an odd, almost worried look.

"Yeah, it seemed interesting...the class has a pretty complicated character design and game play."

"Whatever makes you happy." Inuyasha waved him off obviously tired of talking and sensing a lecture coming on, he stared at the world around them. "This still feels so unreal..."

"I know." Miroku joined in, forgetting the long character lecture he was about to give his friend. "What weapons do you have?" He asked, excited to get the game started. Inuyasha looked down at himself and shrugged. "Open your inventory, you can carry a vast amount of items in there." Inuyasha continued to look at him confused. "You have an internal inventory, just think about it and you'll have access...jeez." He did not revel in the thought of holding Inuyasha's hand through the entire game. Inuyasha looked like he was concentrating far too hard for a few minutes and then looked disappointed.

"I don't have any weapons." He replied downhearted and more than slightly annoyed.

"Oh right! You're a dog hanyou, so you start with just your claws." Miroku conveniently remembered.

"My claws?" Inuyasha questioned looking down at his hands, sure enough on the end of each delicate finger was a long, sharp dangerous looking nail. He clenched his fist, excitement bubbling up inside him, "Well let's go kill some shit then!"


	2. First Town

Chapter Two,  
>First Town<p>

"Didn't I just say "let's go kill some shit"?" Inuyasha reminded his friend for the seventh time.

"I remember something vaguely similar." Miroku teased his friend halfheartedly, seeming tired already.  
>"Then where are we going? Why haven't we found anything to battle yet?" Inuyasha demanded staring at his pretty bare feet as they walked along a seemingly never ending dirt path.<p>

"We're still beginners, lowest level in the game." Miroku explained for the seventh time. "There's almost nothing we're strong enough to fight yet."

"That's stupid." Inuyasha grumbled cracking his knuckles, "This female body is useless."

"Hey, I'm male and I'm in the same boat." Miroku stood up for women everywhere, "We just need to find an NPC." Inuyasha gave him another confused look, "It's a non-playable character, their put into the game to assist us, challenge us, or pretty much fill rolls of anything that's not a player or mob."

"How can you tell an NPC apart from a real player?" He asked looking over at him.

"Not sure yet." Miroku admitted, there was still a lot he didn't know about the game but that was just part of being a beta tester. "Hey look." He grinned as a few rooftops came into view over the next grassy hill. Inuyasha's expression changed right away as he ran ahead, Miroku keeping up a steady pace behind him. They stepped up to a large wooden gate and stared in amazement, the village was so real! Merchants were devotedly selling their goods, villagers were talking and working and even a few children ran around the square boisterously swinging small wooden swords at each other. Inuyasha spotted an armoury merchant and stepped through the gate, as soon as his bare foot hit the ground the people fell silent. Inuyasha's ears perked as a couple of the towns people began to wispier, Miroku stepped forward and swung his staff out in front of his friend. "What's going on?" Inuyasha looked over at him concerned. An uncomfortable air fell around the people as they watched him, suddenly these harmless people felt like a pack of wolves.

"Didn't you read anything?" He groaned but looked at his friend seriously, "It's states plain as day in the demon classes that some villages in this world are not accustomed to them." He paused to see Inuyasha giving him that same blank stare he had had to deal with since the moment they started this game. He continued, "There are many different places in Feudal Online, some are more accepting to certain races and others are more ignorant for one reason or another. Every place has it's own back story. "

"This village...?" Inuyasha whispered sideways to his friend, not moving.

"Seems to fear or hate demons for some reason."

"What does that mean for me?"

"It means that you can't enter this village, if you do there could be trouble." Inuyasha searched his friends face for some hint of a joke.

"You've got to be kidding, that's stupid."

"Yeah well in exchange the demon classes tend to have higher power levels, it's just the game evening the playing field for every class. If you're low on health or can't complete quests because villages won't let you enter than it gives the opportunity for other classes to advance beyond you." Miroku pointed out in a somewhat haughty tone. "But it's also a way of deterring lone wolf behaviour and encouraging team work. All the classes have skills they can lend each other. I'll go find some quests for us and get some supplies with our starter gold because my class is sub-human. You go find the biggest tree around the village and wait in it, I'll find you later."

"I still think it's stupid." Inuyasha growled stepping out of the village, as soon as his foot left the soil the entire tiny town immediately began it's lively bustling in a somewhat unnaturally quick manner.

"Don't get into any trouble." Miroku waved at her before entering and striking up a conversation with an attractive female alchemist. Inuyasha wondered if she was a real player or just an NPC, none the less he felt immensely left out.

He spent a good twenty minutes in a tree just outside the village, it wasn't the biggest but it was the closest. He was almost ready to log out when he spotted his friend looking around for him and hopped down. "Was that a player?" He asked curiously by passing the surprised and confused look on his friends face.

"No, it was an NPC. They all were, well at least all the pretty girl characters."

"How do you know?"

"I'm not sure, just something about them is obviously not human, as realistic as they are."

"You're doing that thing again where you make no sense."

"Well, it's like... that alchemist girl, she had so many responses to questions and things I would say to her. That it's just unreal to think the creators could possibly predict and compile such a large variety of possibilities, and she almost never repeated herself. Even when asked the same question two or three times, and even when I worded things differently. So someone could very easily be convinced there was a real person on the other side of the line, and not just her. They all were like that, I could have long conversations with them about anything, but..."

"But?"

"It has to be some form of artificial intelligence, because she didn't feel real."

"And we feel real? We're just a part of the game too, it's not like we're actually here."

"I guess it has something to do with souls...or something." Miroku tried to convey this feeling he got when talking to the NPCs, verse the feeling he was getting when he talked to his friend, which was a real playing character. The NPCs almost felt like they were boxed, or set in what they could do and what they are. Unlike him and Inuyasha, real players that could grow and move of their own free will beyond that village where that NPC girl would remain forever, moving about her predetermined grid.

"Souls?" Inuyasha looked at him interested.

"It's like this," Miroku jolted forward and pushed Inuyasha who fell backwards in surprise, he hit the ground with a painful sounding thud.

"We've already covered that we can feel pain." Inuyasha cracked his knuckles, glaring up at his friend.

"Not that, just that I could do that because I felt like it because I wanted to, for no reason at all." Inuyasha got up and brushed off his red clothes.

"And what, the NPCs couldn't? They sure looked like they could when I tried to enter their moronic village."

"Only because they were designed to do that. When I was talking to them I could tell that they would react to things i said and my actions, but that they wouldn't do anything more than that, i guess." Inuyasha's face didn't change, a never ending ocean of confusion. "Alright alright alright!" Miroku shook his head clearing it, "Their like ants."

"Their like ants.." Inuyasha echoed him thinking about it.

"Yes, if you step in the path of some ants, their going to react but soon enough they'll resume doing what they were designed to do and full fill their duty to the ant hill, or in this case the game."

"That actually makes sense." Inuyasha marvelled at his friend, Miroku had always had this pompous intelligence to him that was pretty over exaggerated. Pretty much he liked to think he was a lot smarter and wiser than he actually was, but in this game it was actually being put to good use, with that high IQ or whatever his character has.

"Can we do whatever we want to them?" Inuyasha asked out of curiosity, not a single malicious thought in his head, well not many.

"I did test that a little..." Miroku scratched the back of his head and laughed nervously.

"You didn't."

"It was a test! We're beta testers! It's like, our job." He tried to justify himself, "Plus it was a harmless grope, how was I supposed to know a bunch of data could be offended?" Inuyasha laughed, "At one point I asked the girl if she would bare my children, you know, for the lols." He admitted chuckling.

"Bet she didn't like that."

"Yes, apparently you can create negative popularity with the NPCs. Let's not come back to this town anytime soon." Miroku grinned sheepishly.

"Please tell me you got some supplies before you made an enemy out of the only place we know in this game so far."

"Aye." Miroku pulled a small leather bag out of his sleeve, "It's not much but it should do us okay until we find another village."

"Let's find a demon friendly one."

"Sure." Miroku replied, not oblivious to his friends weening interest in the game do to being left out. "We entered the village from here, so lets head out that way." Miroku pointed to his left and Inuyasha eyed him suspiciously.

"Do you have any idea where we're headed?"

"Yes," Miroku assured him and he felt momentarily relieved, "We're going to find a demon friendly village."

"Feh," Inuyasha rolled his eyes, "Idiot." but fallowed his friend across the plain grassy area they had been in and towards a slightly raised forest area. They walked awhile in silence before Inuyasha spoke again,

"So did you find out why the village hated demons so much?" he tried to sound nonchalant, like he didn't really care.

"Mostly nobody wanted to talk about it, and would avoid me when I enquired." Miroku regaled, "But a few villagers, hard to find villagers," he added so his friend knew he was actually doing work while he was there and not just flirting with pretty computer programs, "Told me stories." Inuyasha looked over at him curiously so he continued, "Apparently back when the village was first being formed, a baby was left at the entrance."

"Someone left a baby?"

"Well this is the back story of the village so, the game can do whatever it wants."

"Alright, go on."

"So they noticed the baby was different right away because when a woman hurried to it and lifted it up out of the dirty blanket it had been wrapped in, a pair of little white wings sprawled out on it's back." Inuyasha flattened his dog ears, did all the demon classes posses animal qualities? He should have payed more attention. "At first they thought the baby was an angel, of coarse. And praised it, it grew older very fast and before they knew it it was a little boy." They had entered the forest now, and the sun shone down through the trees creating pretty light patterns on the ground and all around them. "They thought it was a miracle, that he would protect the village, but..."

"What happened?" Inuyasha felt a lump in his throat, why did he even care? They were just computer programs...but he thought about the villagers mixed expressions of anger, fear and betrayal as they stared at him only a little while ago.

"The boy was very strong and because he was praised so much as he grew and because he was not a pure angel but really a half demon he became very arrogant and corrupt." Miroku sighed and looked up at the sky peaking through the beautiful green trees. "Even as a boy he was strong enough to over come the village, some said it was because he was lonely, and misunderstood, confused and different, but mostly they just thought he was an evil demon, disguised as an angel."

"So one hanyou did them wrong and they've decided we're all evil?"Inuyasha puffed up, the injustice of it, he hadn't done anything!

"You have to understand, they raised him and loved him and even then he lashed out at them. They've come to believe that demons are born innocent enough but will always become evil and destroy things."

"What happened to the boy? The village seemed to survive so..." he trailed off.

"They didn't kill him, they couldn't because he was their child, but he was uncontrollable and they had come to fear him too much." He gulped uncomfortably, this world felt way too real. When the villagers were talking to him he could feel their pain and sorrow, "So they banished him."

"If he was so strong, how could they force him to leave? How could they force me to leave if I decided to enter?" The way Inuyasha was puffing up his chest reminded Miroku of an angry gorilla, an angry gorilla with cute boobs.

"Well first of all, you're still uber weak so they could probably just gang up and kick you out, but for the boy who's power was far beyond theirs they had to get a priest to come and seal him off from the village. They said the boy circled the village for fifty days and nights before finally moving on."

"That's pretty fucking sad." Inuyasha commented crudely.

"Yup, which makes me think maybe he's still out here." Miroku gave Inuyasha a mysterious look.

"You do not..." He stared at his friend.

"No...maybe if it was a lonely, banished chick." he rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "Banished for so long..."

"Is that all you really ever think about?" Inuyasha wondered what drove Miroku to females so strongly, he rather go for a run than have some girl chatter his ear off for an hour.

"Why would I think about anything else?" He retorted and stopped walking, he made a motion like the shape of an hour glass with his hands, outlining Inuyasha's luscious body three feet away "They're perfect."

"You give me the heeby-geebies. It creeps me out just to be around you in this body, no wonder you don't have a girl friend." Inuyasha stated bluntly cutting into his friend.

"Dam man, that hurts." he pouted, "If i was the girl I'd let you cop a feel..."

"I'd rather grope a porcupine." Inuyasha started walking again, "And this ends the conversation."

"Fiiiiine." he sighed staring at his empty hand and fallowing his currently female friend. Miroku paused and dropped his hand, which moved swiftly to his staff, "Did you hear that?"


	3. First Quest

Chapter Three,  
>First Quest<p>

"What the fuck is that?" Inuyasha gaped at a figure in the trees.

"I do believe that is another hanyou." Miroku supplied studying the guy standing in the tree above them. He had long dark hair pulled back in a pony tale, he wore a brown head band and matching brown fur wrap and leggings. His chest was covered by a light piece of armour and more brown fur covered his shoulders. His ears were pointed and a long dark canine tail flicked back and forth behind him.

"Hey! I'm no puny half demon, I'm a full fledged wolf demon." the guy replied and Inuyasha immediately hated his guts. "What's a sexy woman like you doin' playing a computer game?" Inuyasha didn't even register that the question was being directed at him until the wolf demon was in front of him. "New to the game eh? I could give you some tips." Inuyasha glanced over at Miroku, utter disgust written all over his face, his friend was practically keeled over trying to suppress his laughter.

"No thanks fleabag, I'm actually a-" the wolf demon cut him off before he could straighten this shit out and tell him he was actually also a dude.

"Hey you don't have to be embarrassed, I can tell you're a low level. Here let me give you some items..."

"I'm no charity case!" Inuyasha temper flickered and he straightened out his arm, making his claws noticeable and dangerous.

"Whoa whoa. Chill out girly, I'm just trying to be nice." he smirked at her and pulled his own hand up glancing at his claws absentmindedly. He blew on them and rubbed them on his chest plate as if to shine them up. "Anyways, I can tell I'm a higher level than you so really, you wouldn't want to make me angry."

"Feh, wouldn't I?" Inuyasha took a battle stance and was ready to lunge, finally a battle! A player versus player wasn't really what he had in mind but hey, beggars can't be choosers and this guy was asking for it.

"Ho-ho-ho-hold it." Miroku stepped forward between his friend and the first actual player they had encountered yet. "There's no reason for you two to fight, really there's nothing to gain here." Miroku made calming motions with his hands, the people who chose demon classes were such hot heads. "Yes I can tell you're one or two levels ahead of us but really, if we team up against you it's not going to give you that much of an advantage in the end."

"I don't need your help." Inuyasha fumed.

"Only cowards fight two to one!" the wolf howled.

"Only barbarians threaten women, so we're even." Miroku pointed out roughly before planting his fist into his hand, "I've got it, let's create a group." The two then turned on him with shocked faces.

"No fucking way." They replied at the same time and then glared at each other.

"I like feisty women but this is ridiculous, she's practically a man!" he growled at the silver haired hanyou scornfully but was surprised by her totally unaffected face.

"Yup, practically." Inuyasha smirked and brushed a hand through his hair, dismissing the wolf.

"Come on, you're the first real player we've come into contact with yet. This is a good opportunity." Miroku tried to convince the guy, if they could build a group quickly they could go on more serious adventurous and level up quicker together. "We just came from a village demons can't enter, it would be useful to all of us to team up."

"I'm still against it." Inuyasha stated crossing his arms.

"If she's going to be such a bitch all the time, I'm out." the stranger turned away, he had been looking for other people to play with but this chick was intolerable.

"Well...how about I add you to my thread, and maybe if you guys grow the fuck up and change our minds we can party some time." Miroku offered losing patients with the two who seemed to be children in adults bodies.

"Ah whatever, do what ya want." he sniffed seemingly indifferent.

"What's your name?" Miroku enquired, the way the game was built was almost like real life. A player can't tell another players name without asking, and even then the other person could give them a fake name or go by an alias. With that in mind the way the friend system is built is with a "thread", every character has a thread, and when they want to maintain in contact with another player who they don't know in real life they can exchange a "bead" which is put on their thread and allows them to stay in contact via a few different methods, like sending mail, without giving any personal information whatsoever. It was actually a pretty ingenious system that allows maximum aloof and limited information to other players online. Limited being nothing, which they marketed to worrisome parents.

"Kouga." he replied. Miroku slipped his hand into his sleeve pulling out a small round purple bead, he handed it to the man named Kouga. In return Kouga reached into a pocket and pulled out a small cream coloured bead of his own, it looked like it was made out of bone. He tossed it to Miroku who caught it and threaded it onto a string that was only visible momentarily. After the bead was put on it faded away like it had never been there to begin with. "My name is Miroku."

"Well good luck Miroku..." he paused and glanced at the sullen girl.

"Inu." Inuyasha didn't want to give his full name, it seemed like there were going to be quite a few students from his school running around here and he wasn't too keen on the idea of them thinking he purposely chose to be a girl. Yeah that rumour going around school would be tons of fun. As much as he had chosen his character to look like him, and even with the name "Inu" it was nearly impossible to tell it was him. Also because the school had wanted to deter jealousy and possible bullying due to the contest the winners had all been kept anonymous, and obviously in the entire school there was more than one person with each name. So it was pretty solid that no one was going to figure out who they were in real life, and really why would they even care?

"Inu." he bowed low before jumping back up into the tree and disappearing, apparently he had already forgotten the displeasure between them, Inuyasha hadn't.

"Inu, and you're a dog demon, that's cute." Miroku chuckled at the odd coincidence.

"So are we having fun yet?" Inuyasha sulked sharpening his claws on a nearby tree.

"I am." Miroku answered honestly, "If you want to log of you can, I can go solo."

"And let you level ahead of me? Doubt it." Inuyasha retorted.

"Let's find something to put all that pent up energy to use," Miroku mumbled digging into his sleeve he pulled out a scroll and unrolled it.

"What's that?" Inuyasha walked over.

"A quest I picked up for us." Miroku smoothed it out proudly, "I wanted to explore more but you seem a bit restless so..." Inuyasha coughed and pulled the piece of parchment up and away from him.

"If this quest is from the last village...doesn't that mean we'll have to return there to hand it in..?"

"Ah that's the beautiful thing about this quest, the person we have to hand it in to is somewhere in this forest."

"That's the silver lining? Somewhere in this huge forest?" Inuyasha groaned, just when he thought there was something exciting to do.

"Don't get your panties in a knot," Miroku snatched the scroll back, "Once we collect the items we need to they will reveal themselves to us."

"Oh." Inuyasha liked the idea, less work for them.

"So you in?" He smiled, this would be their first quest.

"Hell yeah! What do we need to find?" Inuyasha felt himself getting excited, it seemed stupid, a scavenger hunt of sorts, but in this uncharted world in these incredible bodies. Everything was an amazing adventure.

"It says; a white feather." Miroku reread it, "Yeah that's it, just one feather for every person wanting to complete the quest."

"Does it say why we're doing this at all? Or who we have to hand the quest in to?"

"Mmm it just says that this is a very important task...yatta yatta...when the feather, or in this case feathers have been collected the person will appear...and the mayor of the village was the one to give me this quest. He told me it was of the greatest importance we deliver the items."

"Who needs two feathers that god dam badly?" Inuyasha glanced around at the trees, "This is going to take forever."

"I don't think so, says here there should be feathers aplenty here."

"That's weird too, the creators of this game are weirdos." Inuyasha decided but began searching for the items. Miroku rolled up the scroll and started looking too, he wasn't going to give Inuyasha the satisfaction but he agreed that it was an odd request. Why would the mayor send a random traveller out into the forest looking for a feather to present to a mystery person, and what was the reward for doing so? Surely it couldn't be great.

"Hey I found one." Inuyasha called out before Miroku could even finish his thoughts.

"Already?" He looked up at his friend who was holding an arm full of white feathers, "One?"

"They really were just all over the place." he grinned and held out a handful, "You can have one of mine, but only one."

"That is a colossal waste of inventory space Inuyasha." Miroku observed as his friend stuffed the feathers into his red robe.

"Hey if this mystery guy wants one so bad they have to be worth something."

"Well alright, but give me that big one." Miroku grinned and pulled a large, soft white feather from his friends hand. As soon as Miroku was in possession of a feather as well there was a rustling in the trees and the wind seemed to pick up.

"What brings you wanderers to my forest?" It was almost as if the wind itself was talking to them. Miroku stepped back towards Inuyasha, this had to be the person they were supposed to find in the forest. If so why did it feel so menacing?

"The mayor sent us to deliver these to you." Miroku held out the feather and Inuyasha fallowed suite.

"Ah the mayor...so sweet of him to keep his word even after so many years..." the voice howled cruelly, "I suppose fear really can make an honest man out of anyone." Miroku got a bad feeling,

"What do you mean?"

"What exactly did the mayor tell you two when he sent you out here, in search of worthless feathers that litter this forest." The voice ignored Miroku's question and Inuyasha made a mental note to clear out his inventory later.

"He just told us that It was important to find these feathers, and that you would appear to give us our reward." He explained thinking now that maybe he should have asked more questions about the quest rather than the enquires he had made about the mayor's wife.

"Reward?" the wind seemed to chuckle along with the voice, "Why would I reward you for finding my feathers, when I leave them here just for you?"

"Leave them here for us?" Inuyasha glanced at his feather, "These are yours?"

"Yes." a loud flapping sound echoed around them and the wind settled as a figure floated down from the sky in front of them. "I have more, if you'd like." They stared at the man, he had tussled white hair and was wearing white clothes, spreading out behind him was a pair of huge, dangerous looking white wings.

"Tell us why we're here." Inuyasha demanded crushing the feather in his hand. Miroku observed the man carefully.

"You're here because you are fools, you are on no quest." His voice was cruel and mocking. "The mayor tricked you into coming here, to me, as sacrifices." Miroku clutched the scroll in his sleeve, this was a quest...but what was the point of it? Had the mayor really sent them here to be sacrificed? There couldn't be a quest without a reward or...had the creators really conceived fake quests? Quests with no end?

"Why is the mayor offering you living sacrifices? Who are you?" Miroku questioned, although he had come to the conclusion already there was no harm in buying them more time.

"Have you not herd the stories..? Has my legend already dwindled so much?" He seemed unamused and flapped his wings in anger. "I am the Hanyou of the Forest! Banished from my home fifty years ago!"

"If you can't return, why is the mayor still afraid of you?" Inuyasha observed, why did the mayor send sacrifices to something that couldn't touch him?

"I cannot enter the village, that means nothing for the surrounding area. If travellers, merchants, traders and villagers looking for a new home cannot make it to the village, the village would perish." His eyes seemed to darken and for a moment it was like he wasn't seeing them in front of him, but instead something from his past, "Everything my father ever did was for the village..." It interested Miroku, the way the story seemed to piece itself together. So the mayor had adopted the white winged hanyou all those years ago...

"Are you going to eat us?" Inuyasha thought out loud. The evil hanyou seemed taken aback,

"No hanyou, you should know that even though we are demons, we do not care for flesh of humans."

"Then why have us sacrificed to you?" It seemed stupid to him, and pointless, and a waste.

"I do not enjoy the taste of flesh, I do however feel great pleasure in the sound of screams." The white hanyou spoke very matter o' factly and Inuyasha and Miroku's faces paled.

"This game is getting too fucking real, and by real I mean real fucking scary." Inuyasha whispered to Miroku who nodded, the creators sure went the extra mile in creating an experience. He tried to think again as the demon seemed to have less and less interest in talking to them, this was a quest. What did they have to do to complete it? Maybe they just had to slay the hanyou...but..were they even strong enough to? No...he didn't think so. Maybe he could use the stories he had collected in some way...

"If you want to enter the village so bad, why not just go get the priest that sealed it off from you in the first place and make him remove it?" Inuyasha pondered out loud, if these were real people maybe he would feel bad about pointing this out. The demon shrugged and tussled his wavy white hair,

"Alas he is dead, and his seal remains." This seemed to be his final sentiment, not willing to be tricked into telling anymore he began walking towards them.

"Don't." Miroku raised his staff, "We may not look it, but we are very strong."

"Is that so? My father has never sent me a strong sacrifice." he grinned.

Inuyasha readied himself, he had wanted to fight, although he had been hoping for a less suicidal challenge. Miroku was racking his brain, what, what was the point of this? Defeat** the evil hanyou**, but how, **how**? He thought about the mayor, and the demon, the demon appeared to be in his twenties although he claimed to be over fifty years old but that was normal for demons and half demons, the mayor however was a human and... that's it.

"You're not a grown hanyou at all... It hasn't been fifty years since you were banished." Miroku mused placing the end of his staff into the ground in front of him.

"What are you talking about?" the hanyou growled.

"You think I have forgotten so quickly? I may have been heavenly distracted by all the females in the village but I am not so unobservant. The mayor couldn't have been more than forty."

"So...he aged well, what is your point human?" the angel man sneered at Miroku and raised his wings out to their massive length intimidatingly.

"No I don't think so, I think the truth is that you are still just a young hanyou boy, and you were not banished fifty years ago, but fifty days as the villagers told me in their stories. The village is still too new for me to believe so many years have passed, and I could see the repairs made from some kind of attack not too long ago." All the things he had noticed in the village seemed to come to him at once, all clues to one hanyou's past.

"No, that's not true." the hanyou glared at Miroku and stepped forward raising his fist, "I am a grown up! I can take care of myself!"

"You don't really want to hurt us." Inuyasha realized, and as if some kind of spell was being lifted the man in front of them was slowly dissolving away, the large white wings became only two small fluffy ones on the back of a small skinny boy.

"I do want to hurt you, I want to hurt all humans and demons." He growled at them and turned away, "Everyone that left me alone in this forest should just die!"

"Why did you attack the village, when they raised you?" Inuyasha asked, when Miroku had been telling him the story this had bothered him.

"Ha," he laughed coldly, "They thought I was an angel. An **angel**! I knew what I was, how could I face them? They wanted me to be pure, holy, bring blessings to their village. I was just a half demon, they expected so much of me and I could give them nothing they wanted." he looked so sad the boys wanted to comfort him but they remembered how dangerous he was and stood at a distance, "I tried to tell my father once...you know what he told me? He told me I **was **an angel, and for a moment I almost believed him. Until he went on to say; because the village needed an angel and I would always be what the village needed." He laughed, small tears filling the corners of his eyes, "The village, I began to hate it. So I tried to get rid of it, then maybe my father could love something else." Inuyasha and Miroku looked at each other, there was no way they could finish this quest. Was it pointless to comfort a program? The small boy didn't feel like a program.

"You should find a new village, a better father." Miroku told him, "Maybe you could find hanyous like yourself, people who will understand you."

"You think I can leave this forest?" the boy laughed and Miroku's heart stopped for a moment, was the program recognizing that that's what it was? Unable to leave the forest, forced to forever entrap travellers in an uncompletable quest. "I'll never leave that village alone, not until they feel as alone and scared as I do." Miroku exhaled, no...he was just playing his part. That had really shocked him.

"Let's go Miroku." Inuyasha spoke, "There's nothing we can do." They watched the boy turn around and flap his wings, he disappeared back into the forest and they lost their chance at completing their first quest, although it felt lost as soon as the hanyou showed it's true form. "Hey, it's getting late, let's log off."

"Yeah." Miroku replied and a moment later they were back in their living room.

"That was heavy." Inuyasha sighed lifting his hand to his forehead and brushing it through his long hair. Miroku nodded and they just stared out the window for a few minutes.

"Wanna get a burrito?" Miroku asked as his stomach growled, they had been playing for quite some time and it was dark outside, he rubbed his eyes and tried not to think about the school they had to face tomorrow.

"Yeah let's go." Inuyasha got up and grabbed his jacket, they pulled on their shoes and locked the door behind them. Their laptop screens lit the dark room.


	4. Second Mistake

Chapter Four,  
>Second Mistake<p>

"Ah Sango, I'm so excited!" A teenage girl cheered hugging a large box inside a yellow backpack, she walked quickly beside her best friend.

"Yeah this is really amazing." Sango tightened her grip on her own shoulder bag, "I've never won anything before."

"I won a goldfish at a festival once…but Buyo ate it." Kagome confessed, the terror of coming home to find her fat calico cat perched over the little bowl in her room; a pretty little orange tail protruding from his guilty cat face. "I hope he doesn't eat this." They laughed because in all honesty, he would probably try. Despite the obese feline threat they had agreed to go to Kagome's house, Sango preferred her friend's noisy home to her quiet apartment for reasons Kagome could only try to understand. "We're home!" Kagome called out and her mother greeted them as they took off their shoes and entered the kitchen.

"My girls!" She smiled warmly at them in the way only a mother could and pulled them into her arms. Sango blushed and looked at the floor awkwardly until Kagome shook her mother off them.

"Please mom…" she sighed playing the role of the rebellious teenage daughter but exchanging looks with her that let her know all was well and loved.

"Tut tut!" She dismissed her little self and focused on Sango, "Are you hungry dear? You look thin." She sounded worried and fussed around her daughter's best friend.

"I'm alright." Sango laughed nervously, still not used to such affection even after all these years. Kagome's mother had always been so welcoming it made her as happy as it did sad.

"Have you cut your hair shorter mom?" Kagome intervened rescuing Sango from further preening.

"Why yes," her mother patted her short hair cut anxiously, "It's very hip isn't it?"

"Super hip, mom." Kagome glanced over at Sango whose eyes widened.

"Oh! Yes, the hippest." She encouraged uncouth.

"Ah, I'm so glad." the older woman smiled relieved and turned back to her cooking, "I'll bring some snacks up for my girls later, go have fun you crazy kids." Kagome pulled Sango out of the kitchen and they giggled up the stairs, her mom was the greatest.

"Oh the hippest." Kagome mimicked her friend mockingly and the both burst into fits of laughter.

"She's soooo niii-iiice," Sango spun around and tossed her bag on Kagome's bed, "It wasn't fair, I was completely unarmed."

"Hey she was happy; as usual she thinks you're just peachy keen." Kagome winked at her friend encouragingly, she didn't mind sharing her mom with Sango. She already felt like they were sisters and her mom had enough love in her for at least fifty children.

"You think so?" Sango smiled at her friend shyly, she just didn't seem capable of making relationships with people so this was a good step.

"Yes, now!" Kagome dumped the contents of her yellow knapsack on her bed, a boundless waterfall of snacks, candy and fizzy drinks pooled out like a river from heaven onto her sheets fallowed by a large white box with no label. It landed on the pile crushing a few things. Sango had stop questioning Kagome's magic yellow bag a long time ago, it just wasn't worth trying to contemplate and more so she feared the bag really was magic and might somehow lose its power if found out. Or at least that's what Kagome had told her was true when they were young. "Let's do this." Sango nodded pulling her own box out of her plain dark green bag, she also removed a pink laptop.

"Sango, come on." Kagome nudged her friend, she smiled at her and nodded as they opened their boxes at the same time. In total awe they pulled the expensive machinery out and fallowing Sango's instructions while she read from the instruction book out loud Kagome hooked their Feudal Online systems up to their laptops. "So basically pull this wire out and connect it to the laptop USB port?"

"Yup."

"That's some really advanced technology right there." Kagome laughed.

"What were you expecting?" Sango laughed back, the instruction book had included five paragraphs and two full page diagrams on how to connect the system to a laptop.

"I donno, some kinda laser beam or holograph shoots out or something."

"That's stupid." Sango replied bluntly.

"You're stupid." Kagome stuck her tongue out and looked back in her box, "What color is your head set?"

"Pink." Sango replied humorously, she had never been a huge fan of the color but it seemed too fond of her.

"Mine's green." Kagome smiled pulling hers out.

"Suits you, should we start making our characters?" Sango asked turning her laptop on and watching the F.O light up.

"Yeah, you start. I'm going to go to the bathroom first." Kagome replied getting up and straightening out her skirt.

"Okay." Her friend replied occupied by the interesting beginning clip.

Kagome washed her hands and stepped out of the bathroom walking into the hall. "Souta, seriously! Let go!" She herds Sango's voice, loud and urgent from her bedroom.

"What's going on?" She asked opening her bedroom door to see her little brother in a tug of war with Sango, the rope was her laptop. "Ah!" she cried in horror.

"I want to play too! It's no fair you guys get the Feudal Online!" He cried, rightfully jealous but still very much in the wrong. "Why can't you share?"

"I'm so sorry Kagome he just showed up and was curious and I told him he could only look but then I looked away for a second and he was doing something on your laptop!" Sango gushed, an iron grip on her friends green computer.

"Souta, get out. **Now**." Kagome said in a serious tone that even scared Sango. Her little brother tore his hands off her computer never breaking the death glare they had on each other.

"You said I could have a turn."

"After me!" Kagome sighed exaggeratedly, "Now scoot!" her little brother scampered from the room, turned before leaving and apologized in almost a whisper before closing the door behind him. "Little brothers..." she apologized to Sango who was preoccupied with something on her laptop other than the little finger smudges.

"Kagome…" Sango looked at her sympathetically.

"What?" She asked her friend suddenly very alarmed, she hurried over and looked at the screen. She tried to let the picture sink in; showing on her screen was a plain boy, standing very still.

"I can change this right?" She looked up at her friend worried, she felt her stomach dropping.

"Not right now..." Sango admitted looking at her own computer, "I'll make mine a boy too, so it's fair." She moved her mouse over the male symbol and was about to click but Kagome grabbed her laptop away from her making the F.O system slide slightly on her bed.

"No. You make your character the way you want it to be, I'll just play this one." She grinned at her friend, she really was the best. Only Sango would make herself a man just to make her feel better.

"You sure?"

"Yeah." Kagome laughed, "Maybe being a boy will be fun…." They looked at each other doubtfully but began customizing their characters anyways. Kagome made her boy medium height, his hair was short but messy and black like hers, his eyes were wide and dark brown. Kagome scanned the races and jobs and chose her favorites. "Race: Human, Class: Priest" scrolled across the top of her screen and her little guy was adorned with long, wide red pants called hakama and a white robe-like jacket, a red obi tied into a bow around his waist and white tabi socks under sandals completed the outfit. She was happy that the priest clothes were so cute, her character gave her a wink before pointing to a door marked "ENTER", a white figure appeared on the screen and advised her to put on her head set. She looked up at Sango who was holding her own pink set at the ready; they nodded and put them on.


End file.
